


To Become Alraune's Fare Delight

by Isadora (Devilish_Isadora)



Category: Shin Megami Tensei Series, 真女神転生IV | Shin Megami Tensei IV
Genre: Female Antagonist, Gen, Male Protagonist
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-01
Updated: 2019-07-01
Packaged: 2020-05-31 13:14:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19426711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Devilish_Isadora/pseuds/Isadora
Summary: Told from the point of view of Navarre as he is captured by Alraune during the early moments of Shin Megami Tensei IV. He and his fellow samurai can do nothing but await rescue as she taunts them.





	To Become Alraune's Fare Delight

_“That goddamned Navarre. This ersatz rescue’s become a real one.”_

* * *

Flesh-like tendrils stroked his captive arms as Navarre awoke to the demon’s domain built around him. The prentice had been chosen not a day prior yet already found himself in a place only visited in the most grim of nightmares. He looked to his left. Another samurai - one clearly more experienced than he - sat detained as well. He thought of calling out, of screaming for the help of the other. But Navarre saw no hope in the others’ eyes. The samurai did naught but shake his head. There was no point in screaming.

“Oh, finally.” A woman’s voice spoke. The prentice perked up, rapidly swinging his head around the room’s perimeter. Nothing. “I much prefer you awake, my dear delights…” The domain’s tentacle walls tightened around his arms and legs. They began to tingle as if a thousand flies were trying to break out from the inside. A long, hopeless sigh left the other samurai’s lips - Navarre turned to look at him instantly. He didn’t think a real samurai would give up so quickly. Especially… not one that had the duty to save the great Navarre!

“What’s the matter?” The woman’s voice came again, taunting both of the captives. After a strange squelch, a figure began approaching them - looking vaguely humanoid from a distance. She laughed. “I was sure you’d be the type to beg… did I pick the wrong humans? Oh, that’s too bad…” The distance between she and her prisoners narrowed, and Navarre finally saw what she was. No human. Obviously. He scolded himself for thinking such a thing even remotely possible. The creature floating eerily in front of him was nothing but a demon.

Her pale torso was covered in vines, and sprouted from a black, levitating rose of an unreal size. Long crimson hair covered her face where her eyes normally would be (One can never be too sure with demons), and fell to cover her breasts as well. The hair and the vines, combined, looked as if imitating some impure human clothing, the origins of which bled undeniable lust that sent chills down Navarre’s spine. At her true appearance, he cringed. She simply held his chin with her cold, pale hands.

“I know those clothes. You’re a prentice, aren’t you? Newly recruited into the samurai…” She trailed off, as her hand did too, scratching Navarre’s chin as it did so. The demon clapped as her red lips - somehow the same colour as her hair - warped into a twisted smile. “Isn’t that a shame? I’m the first demon in such a long time to make a domain here… and on your first day, you wandered right into it.” She giggled. “You’re so unlucky… Or maybe I’m just _very_ lucky?” Another laugh. Tears welled in the ducts of Navarre’s eyes. He clenched them shut to not show his fear, but the demon noticed. “And you’re crying already… Poor little man. Do you want me to drink your blood first, then?”

“No! No, no, no, no!” He suddenly spurted. “I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die, I don’t want to-” The demon placed a single white finger over his mouth. 

“You’re begging now? Ah, that makes this so much more wonderful!” She retreated her finger and clasped her hands together again. “And all it took was some… human negotiation. I think that’s quite the opposite of what a samurai _should_ be doing. Wouldn’t you agree?”

The tears finally fell from Navarre’s exhausted eyes. The demon tugged on his green scarf, he gagged and gasped for air. “Don’t cry, little prentice. You’re in the domain of Alraune now. Things will be… just fine.” Purple breath sept from her lips as she spoke the words just inches away from his face. He breathed it in painfully - his fearful expression turning sickened. The other samurai in the room watched silently until he heard the demon’s name. Only then did he attempt to defend his comrade.

“Alraune! Owner of this domain!” He demanded. The brown tendrils loosened when the demon heard her name spoken.   
“And you’re speaking up, too. You’re making me so very happy.”

“I-I wish to negotiate a ceasefire! Let the prentice and I free, and- and we’ll-”

“I’m so sorry,” she said without feeling, “that’s not an option.”

“Explain, demon!” Came the desperate demand of the samurai. 

“Look around you, human. What is there you have that I could possibly want?”

“A… life stone?”

“Don’t make me laugh.” Alraune hovered sinisterly toward him. “A stone like that is the lowest of the low. It doesn’t make for a good meal. But you? You certainly will, my little human.”

The samurai cursed himself. Another squelch, the same one from earlier, was heard and as if in sync, Alraune disappeared alongside it. Four humanoid creatures cautiously entered the room, looking as if they were slowly surveying it. Navarre thought them demons trying to make the domain their own. He sobbed silently to himself, sadly content that no one again would hear his graciousness. He had failed his noble family, and he had failed the samur-

“What is that…?” A familiar voice asked. Navarre ceased his despair and looked straight up at the domain’s intruders. They were not demons at all, they were… the other prentices! They had finally arrived to save him!

“Wh-Who’s there? Hello…?” The other samurai asked first.

“That voice… Walter, is that you?” Navarre painfully smiled. His tears of fear slowly morphing into tears of joy. “I’m saved…! It’s me, Navarre! Your fellow samurai! Hurry and get me down from here!”

The other prentices approached, but Alraune’s voice emanated through the room as they closed in on Navarre. “What a selfish human… First you deceived these people, tried to have them hurt, and now you’re begging them to save you? Ahh, the blood from humans like this is-”

“Hoy, demon. I’ve heard enough of your folly. Give us the damn idiots and we’ll be done with this mess. I’ll err on the side of mercy if you comply.” Navarre stared at the one who spoke. The samurai with the blue scarf, who wore not a shirt under his garb… An angry Walter stood directly in Alraune’s path. His hands sat directly on his hips, but even the relatively untrained Navarre could notice he was holding one extremely close to his concealed blade.

“I’ve already had this talk with the other samurai.” Alraune said, “look around you. What don’t I have in this lovely little domain of mine? Just a little food is all… I’m so very hungry, my little samurai.” She smirked. “Someone as defiant as you are… Your blood has such a strong taste. It doesn’t stay long, but it’s a taste that can’t be forgotten. So please… won’t you give me just a sip?”

“Tch, fine then. Flynn, Jonathan, Isabeau? Leave this one to me. I’m not letting this wench get even a drop out.” Walter spat on the ground next to Alraune.

“Erm…” The prentice with the yellow scarf, his hair styled neatly, spoke. Navarre recognised him from childhood - Jonathan. So even he had come to this rescue! “If you really want to, Walter, then I won’t stop you. Just be careful.”

“Do you doubt me? Just watch, then - I’ll end it thus.” Walter had not even drawn his blade, but some sort of flame had overtaken Alraune’s body, interrupting her hovering and sending her toppling to the ground. Walter smirked. Another flame, this one of unbearable intensity, overtook her. Even Navarre could feel the heat from his tentacle-like prison. And before she could even speak, Alraune shattered as if she were a piece of glass.

An unbelievably bright light overtook the room. When it had faded, Alraune’s domain had disappeared. Navarre and the other samurai dropped to the ground. “With the owner demon destroyed, the domain can’t exist,” explained the red-scarfed prentice, and the only female among the group. Navarre recognised her voice - Isabeau. Navarre picked himself off the ground, hastily wiping the tears from his eyes as he did so. He breathed slowly and deeply before speaking.

“Well, you’ve given a fine account of yourself… for a Casualry, I suppose.”

“Yes, yes, please tell me more about how you hate us so,” Walter scolded. “I don’t want to hear any more of you until we get back to Mikado.”

“But know that this was in no way-”

“What did I just say?” Walter smacked Navarre over the head with the hilt of his blade, knocking him out instantly. “Finally,” he sighed “had I heard any more of that patter I’d be bedridden.”

“Walter!” Jonathan’s eyes narrowed, “I know how you feel, but he was our fellow prentice. I won’t permit violence among us.”

Walter looked at him as if he were stupid. “But you’d permit his trap and let him go off scott-free? Pah, Luxurors, am I right, Flynn?”

The final prentice, the one with the white scarf, only replied with a “hm” - as if he were not listening to begin with. When he and the others turned to speak with the other samurai they had saved, they found him already missing.

“No sense in staying to look for him. We’ve got to get Goddamned Navarre back to Mikado. I assume none of you are going to make me go myself?” 

“Walter’s right,” Isabeau nodded, “let’s go back. I think I’ve had enough demons for one day.”

The prentices nodded in sync and set off for the surface. Walter carried Navarre over his shoulder, who’s consciousness faded in and out again and again. But even so, he could have sworn he saw a faint black rose as he was carried away from the battlefield.


End file.
